Collins Takes Stand, Denies Theft Of Funds

July 16, 1985|By Jon Peck, Staff Writer

Former Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard B. Collins repeatedly told a jury Monday he is not a thief and did not steal from a top-secret spy account under his control before both sides rested their cases in Collins` embezzlement trial.

Collins took the witness stand unexpectedly in West Palm Beach federal court to plead his innocence to the 12 jurors who are expected to begin deliberating after closing arguments from lawyers this morning.

Also Monday, one of Collins` former aides testified that the Air Force special projects office had authority to use the secret Swiss bank account to shortcut the military chain of command, and the head of Lockheed Aviation International said he withdrew cash at least twice from the government-owned account.

However, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. David C. Jones said it was unlikely his predecessor, Gen. George Brown, would have given Collins the open-ended authority Collins claims to have had over the fund. Collins said he got his orders directly from Brown, without Jones knowing anything about them.

For more than a week, Justice Department prosecutors have tried to convince jurors that Collins, now a 55-year-old Fort Lauderdale resident, pocketed $19,000 in interest earned on the classified $450,000 Air Force fund, and then concealed it from auditors by moving it from one bank account to another.

Collins claims Brown ordered him to use the account to create a ``contingency fund`` for covert spying operations.

``Within the parameters of those guidelines, I had the responsibility to run the account,`` Collins said. Collins testified he placed $24,000 from a secret Pentagon contingency fund into a locked briefcase and then stored it in his mother`s Virginia home in order to conceal it from Air Force personnel who lacked security clearance to know about the fund.

Asked by his attorney if he had ever withdrawn any of the money and spent it for personal gain, Collins replied firmly, ``Never.``